California issues emergency orders as hospitals overwhelmed by COVID-19 intensive care patients



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Following the continued rise in COVID-19 cases, California has issued a new statewide public health order maximizing the surge capacity of all state hospitals. This will force all hospitals in California to accept patients from hospitals in crisis.

Hospitals with a room for patients with surges must accept a patient transfer request from a health clinic within 60 minutes of filing the official request, the ordinance of January 5 reads.

“Immediate action is needed to conserve resources, to help avoid the need to adopt standards of care in a crisis, and to ensure that hospitals can continue to care for critically ill Californians suffering from COVID-19 as well as ‘other life-threatening conditions,’ says public health worker Tomás Aragón wrote.


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It comes as more than half of California hospitals have reportedly requested waivers to help cope with staffing shortages and rising patient numbers, following COVID-19 outbreaks, Aragón notes.

The state’s new public health order is trying to sort care across all hospitals so that patients with COVID-19-related illnesses and other conditions can access care.

From January 6, more than 11,000 new cases have been reported. Hospitalizations and deaths have steadily increased. Hospitals and medical professionals have expressed concern over the rise in cases linked to recent holiday gatherings.

“I am very concerned to see an increase in the number of hospitalizations and deaths linked to gatherings that have taken place during the holidays,” Rais Vohra, acting health officer of the Fresno County public health department, told KTLA.

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